First time to play - error 2002 and empty character screen

This is my first time playing FFXIV. I download and install the game to my ps3, and then download and install all the patches. Then I start the game. At the opening screen, I selected "Start" and chose data center "Aether", because I live in North America. The character selection screen loads, but the floating platform is empty. After about one minute error 2002 pops up, and I am sent back in to the Square Enix login at the launcher.

I have tried logging in to every data center at different times, (times noted are pacific standard time) 10:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m., 12:00 a.m. (Feb 19, 2016), 3:30 a.m., 4:30 a.m. (Feb 20, 2016), because I thought these non-peak hours might help me get into the data center. I have turned off the ps3, changed location on my campus, used wireless and wired connections, changed my DNS ports to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, then to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. I have tried choosing a data center, then canceling out of the empty character creation screen, and choosing a new data center (suggested by Caimie on this website), but that did not work either.

Something else to know - the ps3 internet connection test showed me that UPnP is not available, and I have a NAT Type 3. Also I am trying from a college campus where I do not have access to my router. Does this have anything to do with it?

My impression from reading many other threads is that the 2002 lobby error is due to many people being on the server, so I thought this problem would be resolved by logging in at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m..

I was very excited to play this game and now I am becoming disappointed. I really hope you can help resolve the issue because I am getting close to giving up on FFXIV, the only game I bought a ps3 for.

A lot of the time Colleges don't allow multiplayer gaming. When I was at university, everyone on campus was blocked from playing games online, so things like World of Warcraft didn't work. It could be a similar thing is happening at your campus?

The best thing would be to talk to the people at your campus who are in charge of the internet to see if they know the issue. They will either be able to fix it or will tell you that you won't be able to get online.

A lot of the time Colleges don't allow multiplayer gaming. When I was at university, everyone on campus was blocked from playing games online, so things like World of Warcraft didn't work. It could be a similar thing is happening at your campus?

The best thing would be to talk to the people at your campus who are in charge of the internet to see if they know the issue. They will either be able to fix it or will tell you that you won't be able to get online.

Click to expand...

You are probably right. I spoke with them before the weekend and I know they do not block console access to the internet (they had in the past but do not anymore), and I was able to download the game and 13gb of patches.

However, something I have heard is that a UPnP connection (whatever that may be) is not required to patch but is required to play - so I will talk to them about that. Also I know that torrenting is not easily done on campus, and maybe some of the ports needed to play ffxiv are blocked.

I'm talking to the campus networking people later today and will hopefully get this figured out.